The present invention relates to a temporary trench cover for use during construction and a rail member used in forming the trench cover.
During construction of a building, or in retrofitting an existing building, it is often necessary to cut a trench through a concrete slab, and into the underlayment, for placement of pipes or electrical wiring. Such trenches must be accessible for the period of time required to complete the laying of the pipe or wiring. For safety reasons, temporary covers must be placed over the trench opening during the period of time they are not being accessed so that workers or the public at the construction site will not inadvertently step into the trench, thereby causing them to fall and become injured.
It is typical at such sites to temporarily cover a trench with a steel plate. However, such plates are expensive, are heavy and difficult to handle, and have edges extending above floor level which can cause a person to trip and fall. p It has also been suggested to anchor 2xe2x80x3 by 4xe2x80x3 wooden blocks to the entire inside upper edge of a trench and nail or screw one inch thick plywood strips to the tops of the blocks. Although the blocks can be positioned so that the upper surface of the plywood is level with the floor surface to eliminate tripping, such a system is very time consuming to construct, hard to remove, and access to the trench is costly and narrows the width of the trench by about three inches. In addition, since the blocks are typically anchored about four feet apart, the system is not very strong.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a temporary trench cover for relatively narrow trenches, i.e., up to about 48 inches in width, that reduces or eliminates the problems encountered with many prior temporary trench covers.
The temporary trench cover of the present invention includes a pair of longitudinally extending rails, the rails being spaced apart and substantially parallel to each other. Each rail includes a web extending between an upper flange and a lower lip. The flange, web and lip form a C-shaped channel. The C-shaped channels of the cover""s pair of rails face each other. A substantially flat cover member having longitudinally extending edges is positioned within the C-shaped channels of the rails and is attached to the rails.